The Crafty Nerd Goes On Vacation: Part 1

Posted on July 28, 2013
by Beth Lynn

No no no, not a vacation from posting – although I did unintentionally take one of those, and I’m sorry! I’m going to stick to a schedule from now on – Wednesdays and Sundays will be my posting days, with an occasional Roundup here and there. And since today is a Sunday…

WE HAVE A POST!

Now, I really am on vacation – back in my home state of New York, in the lovely Adirondack Mountains. Bryan’s grandparents have a cabin here, and I’ve been coming up here with Bryan and his family for about six years now. We’re close to Lake George, which is a very touristy place, but far enough away from all the busy-ness of the town, which is wonderful.

I mean, come on, look at this beautiful view of the Hudson River. Absolutely wonderful. I’ve been looking forward to this all summer – and I am incredibly happy to be here. All my classes are done for the summer, work has entered a lull (I taught a ridiculous amount of page layout and design workshops during the early part of last week, and that’s it for my teaching schedule for the rest of the summer), and it’s the perfect part of the summer to take a vacation. So here I am, parked at the kitchen table in my pajamas and my Escher-inspired Doctor Who sweatshirt, with my laptop, writing this post while listening to the birds tweet outside.

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Second Doctor Who Scarf!

Posted on June 21, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Well, it only took me six months to do it this time – I finished my second Doctor Who scarf!

The scarf turned out pretty well, although there were a couple of hiccups along the way while making it, including…

It turns out I used the wrong size needles. for some reason I figured that I’d be using the same size needles as I used for Bryan’s scarf, but nope. I was wrong. I needed a size 9 needle – and used a size 6, and didn’t realized I was using the wrong needles until I was about five rows away from done. Not even kidding. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I may try to make a new one in the correct size… is that crazy?
Crocheting the edge was a bit tough, especially on the side that had all the color changes. The pattern didn’t exactly explain how to do it (“slip stitch crochet on right side only” is not quite enough detail – where the heck am I supposed to put that slip stitch?). I ended up just single-crocheting around the edge on the right side – it made the edge a little more obvious, which I was fine with, but I don’t know as it’s entirely show-accurate… The worst part was trying to wedge my crochet hook through the color changes – that side’s a bit messy because of that. It’s not horrible, but when it comes to my craft projects, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
I am really sick of doctorwhoscarf.com changing their patterns every year! This happened when I was working on Bryan’s scarf, and it happened this time too – I inevitably lose the pattern somewhere, and then go to look it up online, and it’s completely different. While the change wasn’t so drastic with Bry’s scarf (it went from just a list of colors and rows to a graphical pattern), the change on my scarf was much harder to deal with – the maintainer of the patterns switched from counting each rib as a row, and listing the amount of ribs on each color span, to counting each individual row and therefore doubling the amount of “rows” in each span of color. It really threw me off, especially when I did my counting. Next time I do a scarf, I’m going to get in the habit of printing out a couple of copies and sticking the extras to my bulletin board, so I don’t have to switch to reading a pattern in a different format.

Aside from these issues, making the scarf was fun, and it kept me occupied during many long chilly nights of TV watching and gave me something to do while sitting through family gatherings and classes. I’m kind of sad that I’m done with it… and I’m considering taking on the task of making scarves for friends, should they want one. I’m starting to question my sanity, with that last bit, haha, but there’s nothing so soothing as knitting a nice, long, Doctor Who scarf!

Beth’s Craft Picks of the Week! – 4/15/13

Posted on April 16, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Hello all! I hope your Monday went well – mine was a bit of a mixed bag. Ah well. I’ve got a fresh batch of crafty picks for everyone this week!

Case of the Mondays Cross-Stitch Kit

Speaking of Mondays… this would be a hilarious addition to anyone’s cubicle, haha. It’s in a handy dandy kit, put together by Purple Hippo Stitches, and also part of their Tax Day Sale! I’m half done with my own set, and plan on sticking mine in my cube once it’s done. It’s really simple, and an easy intro to cross-stitching if you’ve never done it before.

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Making the best of a sick day (or two)

Posted on April 7, 2013
by Beth Lynn

You know what’s worse than being sick?

Being sick on a weekend. A beautiful weekend, no less, where it’s finally warm enough to open all the windows and sit outside on the porch, and enjoy the beautiful flowers.

I hate late season colds.

The beginnings of a TARDIS blanket

However, I did make the best of this cold – yesterday I decided to jump in on the Worsted for Wear Knit/Crochet-a-long on Ravelry (it’s Doctor Who themed!), and am working on a TARDIS blanket. It’s small – I suppose I could make it a lot bigger if I upped the hook gauge, but I figure I should stick to the pattern for right now, since it’s my first time working with filet crochet. You can’t really make much of it out, but that’s totally the bottom of the TARDIS. I swear. 😀

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How to Make Your Own Dragon

Posted on April 3, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I’ve noticed that people keep coming to my site to look at all the various Toothless plush that I’ve made (well, the one plush, and the one crocheted Toothless) – and I just now realized I don’t have any links to where I got the patterns or inspiration for these awesome dragons! So, this post is dedicated entirely to where to find out How to Make Your Own Dragon.

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Random Project Roundup – 3/24/13

Posted on March 25, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Well, the weekend’s almost over, and I did tell myself I’d be writing a blog post this weekend – since nothing exceedingly nerdy happened this week, I’m going to do a roundup of the projects I’ve been working on recently! I’ve got three that I’ve been working on over the past week, and here they are.

The Schweet Cowl

This shawl earned its name from the little colored speckles in the yarn – it bears a bit of a resemblance to Vanellope Von Schweets’ hair! I started working on this on the flight to San Francisco a few weeks ago, and have been working on it in classes since I got home. It’s getting pretty long – once it’s finished, I’ll sew it up, and then it loops double for wearing. (It’s the Holy Cannoli pattern, on Ravelry.)

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Classy crafting

Posted on February 6, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I know this isn’t in the classroom, but still – made a lot of progress!

I’ve noticed a new trend in some of my Information Science classes, and I’m taking part in it as well – there are a lot of students working on knitting and crocheting projects during class! I brought in my Little Lovely Shawl to work on during Human Computer Interaction yesterday, and while we had wonderful conversations about cognition and how the brain works in relation to computers and technology, as well as trying to assemble a mental model of how an ATM works, my shawl grew by leaps and bounds.

Another classy-craft – this one’s a scarf for Bryan

Another of my classmates was working on a mobius cowl – I might see if I can get a picture of it on Thursday – and one of Bryan’s classmates in his Informatics class was knitting a scarf! I’m not sure exactly how it works so well, but doing something with my hands helps keep my mind focused on what the instructor is talking about. Not to mention I get quite a bit of knitting or crocheting done when I have something else to focus on – if it’s just me and the yarn, I tend to get bored pretty quickly. So, it’s a win-win situation! I’ll keep posting pictures of the awesome things I make (or work on) in class. It definitely helped in last night’s Organizational Informatics class – not only did I soak up what was going on, I managed to knit quite a bit of scarf. And there was the added bonus of knitting keeping me a little more alert than usual – my Tuesdays are the longest day of my week, with class going until 8:30 pm at night – so having something to do with my hands kept me a little more awake.

Speaking of projects to work on in class, I’m thinking of starting a mobius cowl of my own to work on – I’ve got some beautiful purple and brown yarn I want to use up, and I’ve found quite a few interesting patterns on Ravelry. Ahh, Ravelry – you keep me busy finding good ways to use up all my yarn, hahaha. Of course, it doesn’t help when yarn stores have good sales on pretty yarn – I spent entirely too much money on yarn this weekend!

To my readers – do any of you knit or crochet in class? Tell me in the comments, and feel free to share pictures of what you’ve made!